Thu July 31, 2008
ARBIL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two United Arab Emirates based companies announced on Tuesday that they will be investing in the Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Four hundred and sixty one million square feet have been officially assigned to "Gas Cities LLC," a joint venture between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, both Sharjah-based companies, to establish a new venture: "Kurdistan Gas City."
Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial, residential and commercial buildings in an integrated city. The expected initial investment in basic infrastructure is estimated at $3 billion, with further foreign direct investment exceeding $40 billion during the operations phase.
Work will start on the project, which is designed to promote private sector investment in a variety of gas-related industries, on September 21.
Gas City is structured to hold over 20 varieties of world scale petrochemical and heavy manufacturing plants, and hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), served by state-of-the-art facilities.
Mr Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said: "Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have made a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy through their work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq thus far, we are making significant progress in spurring on economic growth and creating opportunity for our people."
Hamid Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas, explained the importance of this achievement saying: "The Kurdistan Gas City is an enormous step forward in Dana Gas' strategy across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia."
The Kurdistan Gas City is projected to generate job opportunities for nearly 200,000 Iraqi citizens in infrastructure, industrial projects, support services and other business activities.
This is not the first project for Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, the two companies are committed to a service agreement signed in April 2007 with the Kurdistan Regional Government to build 180 kilometers of natural gas pipeline and two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plants, which are 80 percent complete.
The project is on track and will start pumping 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in the coming weeks, rising to 300 million cubic feet by early 2009.
Other companies from the UAE showed similar interest in Kurdistan Region "Damac Properties" one of the major private developers in the regions revealed on June 3 plans for a $16 billion residential, commercial and recreational project.